I haven't read any sci-fi lately, except for some short stories. In preparation for the Ender's Game movie, I re-read the book and decided to also read Ender's Shadow (the story of Bean's life before military school, and then repeats Ender's Game story through Bean's eyes). Wow! Really glad I did! If any of you have read one without the other, you are missing out!

Before that, the last scifi I read was Dog Stars by Peter Heller, a dystopian novel, which I also enjoyed.

Prior to that I re-read 1984 and Brave New World. With so much scary technology available to the powerful, they are definitely worth re-reading. Of course, with all the similarities, it will also scare the hell out of you!

Several months ago I read Wool by Hugh Howey. It started as a short story and became so popular he turned it into a novel. I have to say, I really enjoyed it.

From an internet reviewer: "the dystopian life he has imagined is, at times, truly disturbing. This is a world where the air is deadly, and where humanity has lived ever since anyone can remember, in a giant underground silo, a bunker hundreds of stories deep, creating everything people need beneath the earth. The outside world can only be seen through a blurry image projected onto a wall, "lifeless hills ... a familiar rotting skyline ... ancient glass and steel". The filth of the atmosphere gradually coats the cameras capturing the view, and the silo's capital punishment is "cleaning": the criminal is sent outside to polish the lenses before being overcome by poisonous gases."

But in this story there are people that have different levels of knowledge about how these silos or pods came to be. Who were the builders? Were they people or gods? When would it be okay to go outside? As one character becomes sheriff and investigates irregularities she finds there are different levels of knowledge about how their society works... I was never really into dystopian novels, more of a space opera, military sci-fi type of reader, but the past few years with the popularity of The Postman, The Road, Blindness and others, I've been reading more in this genre and have actually been enjoying it. If you have read it, I'd love to hear your comments.